Thank you Will. It is really heartening to read such insightful comments from you, Magnus and Brook Waldman.
I think Figure 3 in article (from UK Treasury and Green Construction Board) sums it up.
It also appears in WGBC report on ‘Bringing embodied carbon upfront’.
You are surely right about politicians and difficulty of convincing them and others to build less! In my city (Adelaide), despite being in midst of Pandemic when most are working from home, huge new office towers are still proposed and supported by government. Yes, due to less commercial real estate demand, they are likely to become stranded assets in future. I am pleased you mention infrastructure, because at moment I am responding to an Australian report on ‘Reshaping Infrastructure for a zero-carbon future’, and presenting some future scenarios where transport and other needs can be met with no new construction e.g. by tele-commuting as you say or running self-guided trams etc on underutilised roads.
I wrote a book mentioned in article (The impact of overbuilding on people and the planet, 2019) where I canvassed some of the above in more depth.
Thanks again to you, Magnus and Brook.
Actually, there is a facility for making comments on the article webpage. Please feel free to also comment there, it will help promote our message.